National Public Broadcasting Archives

04/10/2026

George Lucas letting NPR adapt the original Star Wars trilogy for just $1 per film mattered for more than the price. He also gave them access to John Williams’ music and Ben Burtt’s original sound effects, so these radio dramas did not feel like a cheap spinoff. They carried the same audio DNA as the movies, which made them feel much closer to an official part of the saga.

What really stands out is how much the radio versions expanded the story. The 1981 adaptation took a movie with only about 30 minutes of dialogue and stretched it into 13 half hour episodes. Writer Brian Daley used that space to add more backstory, bring back ideas from earlier drafts, and build new scenes that the film never had. So this was not just Star Wars retold on radio. It was one of the first big examples of Star Wars growing beyond the theatrical version with Lucasfilm fully involved.

The recasting is part of what makes it interesting too. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels came back, but radio gave the producers room to bring in different performers where needed. That is how John Lithgow ended up voicing Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back radio drama. Lithgow later said John Madden already had “Billy Dee Williams and Anthony Daniels and Mark Hamill,” but “Frank Oz had chosen not to play Yoda because he was very doctrinaire about only using his voice when he used a puppet.”

This also became much bigger than a fun experiment. Richard Toscan said the goal was to “create a scandal,” because turning a Hollywood blockbuster into a public radio drama felt like something NPR was not supposed to do. John Madden called it “a complete hoot” and described the process as “making movies with the lights turned out.” That line really explains why the project worked so well. It proved Star Wars did not need visuals to feel cinematic.

And audiences responded right away. After the 1981 debut, NPR reportedly got around 50,000 letters and phone calls in just one week, and listenership jumped by about 40 percent. So the real meaning of the $3 deal is not that Lucas sold Star Wars cheaply. It is that he gave public radio the tools to turn an old format into something that felt epic again.

- By PDA01

04/02/2026

03/03/2026

"Whether you were soothed as a kid by 'Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,' jammed to Patti LaBelle and Stevie Wonder guest-starring on 'Soul!' or start every commute with 'Morning Edition,' the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has likely touched your life.

"But last summer, the nonprofit that supported programs like these for six decades lost its funding, and the CPB was shuttered. To make sure the details of its long history wouldn’t also be lost, the University of Maryland—which already serves as a repository of CPB materials up until 2005—stepped in."

University Libraries Maintains 6 Decades of Archives From Groundbreaking PBS, NPR Shows Like ‘Sesame Street,’ ‘All Things Considered’

02/09/2026

"It’s important to remember that education is what brought us to the dance in the first place, both as a case for support and an organizing mission. Public media did not begin as a journalism project. It began as an educational one. In a post-CPB world, reclaiming that frame is not nostalgia — it is strategy."

In a post-CPB world, embracing our original purpose as a “school of the sky” is not nostalgia — it is strategy.

01/21/2026

Josh Shepperd gave a second interview with the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) about why the right is attempting to shut down NPR and PBS, and how rural station closures will affect democratic discourse.

"If you eliminate all access to local information, people actually don’t see themselves as part of that discourse anywhere in a public forum,” Shepperd said. “It isn’t just an affront to localism. It’s an attempt to reengineer thought.”

“It isn’t just an affront to localism. It’s an attempt to reengineer thought.”

01/14/2026

"Long before public broadcasting became a national system, Wisconsin led the way."

01/10/2026

'On this day in 1971, Alistair Cooke brought us the very first MASTERPIECE presentation, "The First Churchhills," kicking off 55 years of laughter, tears, and the enduring magic of theater.

"Relive hundreds of iconic introductions from The Linda and Andrew Egendorf Masterpiece Theatre Alistair Cooke Collection in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Link in the comments."

01/08/2026

The parent organization of NPR and PBS, already defunded, is shutting down—and claims that’s for the best. But there are dangers ahead.

11/30/2025

For Paul Walker, the sole full-time employee at 89.5 KSKO(FM) in McGrath, Alaska, it’s not uncommon for someone infatuated with perhaps the smallest NPR-member public station in the U.S. to send a token of goodwill its way.

But he took notice when a stream of donations started to trickle into remote central Alaska last week.

One came from an agency director on Madison Avenue, another from the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland.

After the number reached a half-dozen, Walker asked each of the donors how they found KSKO.

“All of them, either directly or indirectly, said it was because of John Oliver,” Walker explained.

After federal funding cuts, tiny Alaska NPR station KSKO found a lifeline thanks to a John Oliver segment and Alex Curley's Adopt a Station website.

11/18/2025

Hornbake Library's current mini-exhibit, "The UMD Sesame Street Archival Showcase," explores the educational experience and cultural impact of the beloved public television program. Among the items on display is Roosevelt Franklin, a Muppet featured on Sesame Street during the early 1970s, on loan from the Center for Puppetry Arts. The Diamondback newspaper reports:

Alex Buckton, a library and information science graduate student aspiring to work in archives and special collections, remarked how cool it was to see Roosevelt Franklin, the first Black Muppet, at the event.

Roosevelt Franklin’s character was controversial, loved by some and criticized by others. Sesame Street actor Matt Robinson, his creator and original voice actor, saw the puppet as a way for the show to reach Black children.

“Somewhere around four or five, a Black kid is going to learn he’s Black,” Robinson said in a 1971 interview. “He’s going to learn that’s positive or negative. What I want to project is a positive image.”

Roosevelt Franklin’s presence in the show was highly debated — many thought his character was stereotypical and one-dimensional. The puppet ultimately made his last appearance in 1977. But for those who are interested, they can learn about his history in the exhibit.

“I feel like everyone would love to see Franklin,” Buckton said.

The Roosevelt Franklin Puppet is leaving on November 25. “The UMD Sesame Street Archival Showcase,” however, will remain open until Dec. 20.

11/18/2025

11/13/2025

WETA to cut staff, cancel ‘PBS News Weekend’ and close News Hour West bureau.

The restructuring includes the elimination of 34 positions, following another round of cuts made in September.

The restructuring includes the elimination of 34 positions, following another round of cuts made in September.